St Andrews Hall Report

7/30/2019 St Andrews Hall Report

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Former St Andrews Sunday School Hall40 Rankin Avenue, New Lynn

Lisa J Truttman, October 2012

From S236h, Shepherd Collection, University Of Auckland

Courtesy Trevor Pollard



Sunday School movement

Sunday schools were first popularised by Robert Raikes in 18th century Gloucester, England. It has

been suggested that the key element behind their success “was that they provided the education and

expressed the values that working-class parents wanted for their children.”1

The importance of Sun-day schools in early colonial New Zealand can be measured by the numbers of pupils and teachers

represented by the affiliation of six churches to the 1865 Auckland Sunday School Union: 992 pupils

and 112 teachers. 2 The 1877 Education Act which provided only for free, compulsory and secular

education meant that traditional religious education was restricted to Sundays. As historian Helen

Laurenson says in her book In This Familiar Place (1999), parents who wanted such education for

their children as part of their moral upbringing chose to send them to Sunday schools, even if they

didn’t attend the church themselves. 3

Building the hall: “The Bricklaying Parson”

Work began on the building of the New Lynn Presbyterian Sunday School Hall, intended to be 100

feet by 481 feet but with dimensions on completion of 60 feet by 34 feet, 4 with space for the addition

of a new church at a later date, 5 at the corner of Rankin (formerly Matai Ave) and Margan Avenues

on 7 November 1928. 6

"Yes, that's my name," said one of three men in a wet trench this morning at ew Lynn,

when a "Star" reporter asked if the Rev W P Rankin happened to be about. ew Lynn

mud has a decidedly clinging nature, especially after a rainy night. Mr Rankin had quite

a lot of it on his bluchers, and as he was without a coat and the usual identifying collar,

it was no wonder he was difficult to sort out. The wet trench, which was being filled with

rough concrete, was the start of the foundations of a school room which will surely merit

that much-abused word "unique." The parson intends to lay every one of the 90,000

bricks himself. Mr. Rankin said he noticed that in the Old Country a Minister of the

Crown (Mr Winstone [sic] Churchill) had taken to brick-laying, and there was no rea-

son why a minister of another kind should not do something in the same way.

During the two years he has been in charge of the Presbyterian church at ew Lynn,

that rapidly-expanding suburb, which some of us remember only the other day as a tea-tree waste, synonymous with bricks and tiles and nothing else. Mr Rankin has done a lot

for the social welfare of the rising generation, and now he is going to see that his over-

crowded Sunday School children have a bit more room. At present they are taught in the

church and are as crowded as sheep. Fortunately there are generous people in ew

Lynn. The ew Zealand Brick and Tile Company, which had previously given the minis-

ter five acres for a football ground, presented him with a fine bit of land just opposite the

present little brick church. On this new section there is to be built a brick schoolroom 60

feet by 34 feet, with additional classrooms at the side.

In addition to having got the land as gift, Mr. Rankin was presented with 90,000 bricks

by Gardner Brothers and Parker. Cement, timber and iron, and other incidentals are



expected to cost about £1000, and for that sum the congregation will have a building

estimated to be worth something over £4000 when it is completed. Mr H Clinton Savage

has drawn the plans of a neat building, and as soon as the foundations are in Mr Rankin

will start on his lone-hand job of building. He is not without some knowledge of the

craft. When he was a young man attending university classes in Scotland there was talk of him going out to China as a missionary, and he used to put in his spare time looking

after building jobs which were undertaken by some of his family, who were all in the

building business.

That is how it comes about that ew Lynn's Presbyterian minister can and will build his

own schoolroom. If somebody comes along and lends a helping hand he will be all the

more pleased, but if not he is not a bit dismayed by having to lay 90,000 bricks. He says

it will probably take him about six months, as he has to carry on his other duties as well.

"We are not rich out this way," he said this morning, "and if I don't build the place my-

self I don't see how we are going to get it. o, I don't mind the job at all. We must get

more room for our scholars. All I want is to leave something for the young people of the

district, and this Sunday School is the most pressing need at the present time." "All right,

I will give him a hearty welcome," remarked Mr. Rankin, when it was suggested that

when people read of his courageous effort a helper might be found.

And the parson at the bottom of the trench picked up his spade and went on with the job

of levelling concrete.” 7

"The result of the article in the 'Star' concerning my endeavour to build a hall for theSunday school at ew Lynn," writes the Rev W R Rankin, "brought me two letters. One,

signed by 'Good Luck,' enclosed £1, and the other came from a gentleman in Herne Bay

offering me two doors. I wish to thank both friends for the practical and generous dona-

tions. I accept most gratefully in the name of the children." It will be remembered that

the "Star" gave an account of the self-imposed task of Mr Rankin, Presbyterian minister

at ew Lynn, who intends to do the brickwork of the new building himself, as the funds

will not run to employing labour. Mr. Rankin adds facetiously: "I have been fortunate

enough to escape the fees necessary to join the Bricklayers' Union. How would it be if

some of the union bricklayers came out to ew Lynn and joined me, even if it were only

for a day?" 8

By mid January 1929, Rev Rankin had laid between 20,000 and 30,000 bricks, “the walls rising ten

feet in parts while in places the foundations are three feet below ground-level.” Foundation stones

were laid on 19 January, one by C F Gardner for Gardner Brothers & Parker and one by Thomas E

Clark, for the NZ Brick and Tile Company which donated the land to the church for the building. On

the second stone there was also “an acknowledgment of the fact that the joinery was given by the

Fletcher Construction Company, and that the carpentry work was the voluntary labour of Messrs G

E McWhirter and Albert Overington, of ew Lynn. The first stone will also state that the school was

built by Mr Rankin, and that the architect was Mr Clinton H Savage.” 9



On the morning of 16 February 1929, Rev Rankin was joined in his toil by the welcome addition of 20 bricklayers and labourers employed by Fletcher Construction, putting in a full eight-hour day

helping to build the hall (six hours paid by the company, the remaining two contributed by the work-

ers voluntarily). By that stage, the front elevation had been completed, with the rest of the building to

the level of the window arches. 10

The brickwork part of construction was completed by around April that year, but further delays

pushed completion forward to the spring. The hall was officially opened 20 October 1929, 11 in front

of around 500 people. 12 The total number of bricks used was somewhere between the figure of

90,000 quoted in the newspapers, to 210,000 quoted by Mary Taylor (neé Gardner).

13

Certaininitialled bricks were set in place during construction “by interested friends”. 14

One of the initialled bricks — possibly laidin place by Herbert Stanley Wilding, for-mer New Lynn Town Board chairman and

co-trustee of the land.

The two foundation stones, set in place by Charles F Gardner and

Thomas E Clark.



The land, and the building today

The land was officially transferred to trustees James Sims Ockleston (manager of the NZ Brick, Tile

and Pottery Company works), brickyard manager Charles Fisher Gardener and accountant Herbert

Stanley Wilding on 12 June 1929.15

Wilding (1875-1952) was a member of the New Lynn TownBoard from 1922, 16 chairman of the Board in 1925, 17 and auditor for the Lynndale Amateur Athlet-

ics Club in 1929. 18

The land, just over a quarter-acre, was transferred in 1942 to the Presbyterian Church Property Trus-

tees.

Around 1959, a brick manse was added to the site, 19 and more land transferred to the Presbyterian

Trustees by Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company Limited in 1962. 20 In 1987, the site was trans-

ferred to the Methodist Church Board of Administration, then sold to a succession of private owners

from 2003. 21 By then, it had been included on the Waitakere City Council list of scheduled buildings

in the 2003 district plan as Category II. 22

In 2008, local resident Paul Duncan appealed for the building to be restored. 23

In April 2012, Auckland Council affixed a notice to the front of the hall advising that it is considered

a dangerous building in terms of the Building Act 2004, as well as being earthquake prone under the

same act, “likely to cause injury or death (by collapse or otherwise) to any persons in it”. The notice

required that the building be vacated, the entrance sealed and that the building cease to be used as a

place of assembly. The building is to remained locked until an engineer’s appraisal of any possibleremedial action is received, and such work carried out to the Council’s satisfaction. 24

Architect and builder

H Clinton Savage – architect

The architect of the hall, H (Herbert) Clinton Savage (1890-1957), became a member of ANZIA in

1914. 25 In that year he co-won (with J Park) first prize in a design competition for new Dilworth

Institute buildings at Papatoetoe.26

Amongst various residential and commercial commissions, hedesigned the Trained Nurses Residential Club building at 24 Mountain Road, Epsom, in 1915; 27 the

original St Andrews Presbyterian Church in brick, 39-41 Margan Avenue (1918); 28 stone pulpit at St

Matthews Anglican Church (1919); 29 George Court building, Karangahape Road (1923-1925); 30

Waitemata Electric Power Board Building, 81-83 Albert Street, City (1926); 31 Oddfellows Hall for

the Star of Avondale Lodge, St Georges Road, Avondale (1928); 32 Masonic Club, Wyndham Street,

City (1928); 33 assessed damage brought on by the sewerage tunnel collapse in New Lynn for the

Town Board in 1930; 34 “Gate of Remembrance” war memorial, St Andrews Church, Margan

Avenue, New Lynn (1933, and also built by Rev Rankin); 35 Wesley Bi-Centenary Hall in Pitt Street

(1939); 36 and Pukekohe Maternity Hospital (1950). 37



Rev William Pillans Rankin (supervising builder)

The St Andrews Hall is especially closely associated with Rev

Rankin. Born in Glasgow on 18 September 1881, he worked as a

builder before joining the Presbyterian Ministry in 1907, his first post being in Manchester. He married in 1910, and was minister-

ing in a Congregational Church in England when he decided he

wanted to come to New Zealand for health reasons in 1914. He

was received in November 1914, and served first at Cromwell,

and then New Lynn from January 1926 until January 1939. He

moved to Huntly, where he died 4 April 1943, in office. 38

According to his daughter Mrs Helen Fryer ,

“For some time he worked as Uncle Bill to Cinderella on

1YA …Many years later I met Bob Younie who told me my

father should never have been a minister as he was ‘too

much a man of the people’. I think I understand what he

meant. There were so many interests particularly in sport – the founding of the Lynndale

Athletic Club and the games of bowls at the ew Lynn Bowling Club – he won many

championships and in 1938 was one of the team of four to represent ew Zealand at the

Empire games in Sydney.

“In the 1930s he was asked by Sir Ernest Davis, Mayor of Auckland to help raise funds for the Crippled Children when the Wilson Home was given to them. He travelled

throughout the orth Island speaking to groups and on the radio to appeal for help in

this cause … [he also raised] funds for the King George V Health camps for ew Zea-

land children.” 39

According to the Waitakere City street names list compiled by David Verran of Auckland Library,

Matai Avenue was renamed Rankin Avenue in March 1969 in honour of Rev Rankin.

Community

During the Depression period of the 1930s, the hall served as a collection depot for the Western

Suburban Social Service, aimed at relieving distress to those residing in the western suburbs by col-

lecting clothing. 40 Election campaign meetings were held there.

On 26 October 1932, the first organising meeting for the St Andrews Society of New Lynn was held

at the hall. The meeting was convened by Rev Rankin, who said “for some time he had felt the need

of Scots people coming together educationally and socially. Families coming from the homeland met

and passed each other on the street never realising that they were brother Scots, with all the ro-

mance and history behind them of the land of mountain, flood and heather.” 41

Image by courtesy Trevor Pollard,

from St Andrews Society history.



Associations

The hall has a close association with its originator and builder, Rev W P Rankin; it is an example of

the work of H Clinton Savage, a noted architect, whose work of a non-residential form is uncommon

in terms of the region. It is also associated with the development of the Presbyterian Church in NewLynn, and is an example of a surviving purpose-built structure for Sunday School use in West

Auckland and the suburbs of the Auckland region – most likely an uncommon remnant. It hosted

meetings and activities staged by members of the wider New Lynn community which helped the sub-

urb develop and thrive during the Depression period of the 1930s. The bricks used in its construction,

from the nearby Gardner works, plus its location overlooking the rest of the former NZ Brick, Tile &

Pottery Company land (owned by the company begun by Albert Crum, and later Amalgamated Brick

and Tile) ensures the building’s enduring association with New Lynn’s brickmaking heritage. It was

also constructed right at the point in time when the Clark family, the Gardner family and Fletcher

Construction were forming Amalgamated Brick and Tile; the documented assistance provided by

Fletcher Construction management and personnel underlines this aspect.

Lisa J Truttman

13 October 2012



Former Presbyterian Church

The other H Clinton Savage designed structure related to the St Andrews Hall is that of the original

Presbyterian Church at 41 Margan Avenue, now part of the Tongan Methodist Church site. This

dates from 1918, and appears to be relatively intact. However, this building is only Category III un-der the Waitakere City Council district plan 2003.

It should be considered as part of the heritage precinct of the Margan-Rankin area, and reconsidered

under scheduling.

Above: From S236h, Shepherd

Collection, University of Auckland



otes

1. “Robert Raikes and Sunday schools”, from http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-raikes.htm. Sighted 13 October

20122. “Proud Century for Sunday School Union”, Z Herald , 2 July 19653. Laurenson, p. 794. Auckland Star , 19 October 1929, p. 125. Auckland Star , 18 January 1929, p. 96. Auckland Star 19 October 1929 p. 12

7. Auckland Star , 7 November 1928 p. 108. Auckland Star , 13 November 1928, p. 69. Auckland Star , 18 January 1929, p. 9

10. Auckland Star , 16 February 1929, p. 811. Auckland Star , 19 October 1929, p. 1212. Auckland Star , 21 October 1929, p.3

13. Trevor Pollard, 70th Jubilee St Andrews Society of ew Lynn, 2002, p. 914. Memories by Helen Fryer, 70th Jubilee St Andrews Society of ew Lynn, 2002, p. 1015. NA 494/18, LINZ records

16. Election results, Auckland Star, 21 September 1922, p. 1117. Auckland Star , 23 June 1925, p. 1118. Auckland Star , 4 October 1929 p. 14

19. Appearance of house on 1959 aerial, Auckland Council website20. NA 494/19, LINZ records21. NA 2038/78, LINZ records

22. Western Leader , 3 June 2003, pp. 6-723. Western Leader , 15 April 2008, p.1724. Notice sighted and photographed on front of the hall building, 12 October 2012.

25. File ref S 263h, Shepherd Collection, School of Architecture Library, University of Auckland26. Auckland Star , 24 June 1914, p. 127. Tender advertisement, Auckland Star , 13 February 1915, p. 1228. File ref S 263h, Shepherd Collection

29. Auckland Star , 3 March 1919 p. 430. File ref S 263h, Shepherd Collection

31. Tender advertisement, Auckland Star 13 January 1926 p. 532. Auckland Star 26 March 1928 p. 1433. Auckland Star , 10 October 1928, p. 7

34. Auckland Star , 10 November 1930 p. 935. Auckland Star , 6 November 1933 p. 1036. Auckland Star , 31 January 1939 p. 13

37. File ref S 263h, Shepherd Collection38. Presbyterian Archives website, http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/Page193.htm, sighted 10 October 2012

39. Trevor Pollard, 70th Jubilee St Andrews Society of ew Lynn, 2002, pp.10-1140. Auckland Star , 3 August 1931, p. 5

41. Minutes of St Andrews Society, 70

th

Jubilee St Andrews Society of ew Lynn, 2002, p.12





Documents

St Andrews Hall Report